What gear do you use? Post a picture of all your fun gadgets here. Since I'm in bed and my gear is all in my car, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to do this myself...

Oh damn, I'm gonna have to do a gear shot. I'm gonna need to pull both cars outta the garage for it.
Actually, I think I have some older shots on here somewhere. Lemme go look.

**edit**

Aight, these are from about 3 years ago. I'll take new ones soon, about 3/4 more new material and a bit of this stuff has been retired since then.

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How long is that yellow rope in the last picture?? And, wtf is that weird gigantic metal thing in the bottom left in #2?

I believe its a portawrap. They're used by arborists to lower tree branches and other super heavy loads....kinda like an oversized ATC or figure 8, but for things weighing thousands of pounds

Posted by terapr0 I believe its a portawrap. They're used by arborists to lower tree branches and other super heavy loads....kinda like an oversized ATC or figure 8, but for things weighing thousands of pounds

Exactly this, also called a Flying Capstan.

The yellow rope is 5/8" 200ft. 16,300lb tensile strength. Known as "bull rope" for arborist work, but is also the type used with rescue loads.

The device, yes, is a PortaWrap. Its WLL is 2000lbs, and its TS is 20,000lbs.

It's just a big descender. In my arborist work I often can't just fell trees from the base, especially when there are houses or fences/outbuildings/sidewalks/roads/etc around the trees, so you lower large sections to the ground using one of these anchored at the base of the tree, and controlled by a groundworker.

In one of the photos is a steel block, a big pulley. I think it's 4000lbs WLL.

The big thick green stuff is 3/4" stable braid anchoring pieces. One is a spider eye and the other is a "whoopie sling". The whoopie is a loop of 3/4" rope braided around on itself so that it will pull in one direction to make the loop smaller, or the other direction to make the loop larger. I usually use one of these at the bottom of a tree to attach the PortaWrap, and the other up at the top to attach the steel block, then use the 5/8" bull rope for lowering. I think I have a video somewhere.

So much more gear to photograph though. Been using the Petzl RIG descender for a while now. Really fond of it. Going to be picking up an ATS pretty soon too.

**EDIT** It is a whoopie sling, not a loopie.

http://www.facebook.com/v/464168980120 <-- video

Using this new stump as a rigging point for the PortaWrap.



And I believe this image was taken after the top was lowered down from that video.

How does one get that job?

*looks around* what job? treework?

**EDIT**

I suppose you meant treework then?

You um... knock on doors and say "hi there, would you like your palms/pines/trees/etc trimmed?" Or "Would you like me to remove that dead tree for you? I can do it for $xxx.xx"

And you pass around business cards to people, and do work for your friends, and wear bright colors. People see you working and will stop by and ask you to come to work at their place. Neighbors will come out and talk to you and ask you about their trees. If you work it right you can hit all the homes in a neighborhood.

Technically you should go to school or a training program to learn how to do this work, since it's quite dangerous. There are sooo many techniques to learn, and then just learning about all the different trees and why and how they grow the way they do, and how to work on them.

I've found it very rewarding, but my enthusiasm for this work is waning. Being connected to dead trees, 60 to 120 ft in the air, and lowering down sections of said dead tree, using the dead tree itself as a lowering platform... gets old after a while. You tend to realize it's a numbers game that you may lose at some point.

When stuff was new and shiny.
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Sorry I don't have a photo of my gear all laid out nicely, but here is some of it just before heading into a mine. There is more in the blue box in the background.




It's not that unusual for our group to be carrying 600' to 800' of rope between us. Some of this rope is Therrin's.




Going vertical in the mines has really opened up the artifacts I get to see. Walk in" mines have been picked clean years ago. It's getting rare to find intact ore cars, and then only when it's quite challenging to get to. We found two ore cars right after this photo was taken.

Abby Normal

Hey, a ropes board.



Of note, shiny new things! Arcteryx harness in the middle, too-small-to-be-real Micro-Traxion, Grigri Mk2 and Alpha Trad biners just above, the yellow Beal Top Gun, the blue Edelrid dyneema-inside-nylon slings, Mammut Serenity 8.9mm.

Not pictured: untold shit I've lost track of... main static rope got left in a plastic bag under a hedge in Yorkshire, my webolette and another length of that green Mammut Supersafe in a cooling tower at the same place, etrier and a bunch of slings last seen in the back of Zero's car, all my HMS biners lent to various people, bunch of metal bits and bobs used as a throwing weight in the Rankine tailrace, four slings used to rig hammocks and two short drops in my house.

@Teknical, hey what do you think of the chest roller? I'd looked at them at one point but thought it seemed a bit bulky. How do you like the way it functions? I would imagine it holds you closer to the rope than a traditional Croll.

@Abby, always a pleasure to see you. Looks like you found our little technical nook over here.
I never saw that pic before, from in the mine. That was a pretty niffty section. Looking forward to exploring with you again soon =)

@Loops, I saw the micro-traxion the other day in a store, held it, worked it. Couldn't believe how small it is. Doesn't it have a polymer sheave on it?

I've got one of the mini's and have used it for quite a bit of stuff over the years. They're pretty handy little devices. What do you use yours for primarily? Just anti-return for hauling stuff? or for tensioning taut-lines or for ascending?

I wanted to use the micro trax as an ascender but I don't think I'm comfortable with how small it is, especially the cam. It's all metal apart from the housing of the release button.

It seems fussy about what biner goes on it as well. I was using it with a BD oval but the profile where it meets the walls of the micro trax is too square, so it walks back and forth nastily when loaded. Took a bunch of the anodising off even ascending 20ft. Another rounder oval was fine but I'd rather not have to remember that...

I'm just gonna harden the fuck up and accept that the standard ascenders I'm used to haven't been bettered yet It's neat for hauling bags I guess, but I don't really do that much.

Using it to REPLACE a croll? Lol, i used a mini traxion for about a year as a chest ascender before I switched to a croll.

Just got back from a mine explore today. Did about 500' of descent/ascent on rope (and tired as hell now after a 2 hr drive home). The guy who was with me I is waiting for his Croll to show up from Karstsports, so I let him use my minitraxion along with his handled for a bit. He didn't care much for it though, as it travels up and down so much each time that you tend to lose a lot of efficiency with it. For the last couple runs I let him go up with my croll then send it back down to me.

Some things "work", but other things just work better.

Gear by Detroit AdventureDog, on Flickr

So the joke is, when I bought the house I was going to buy myself a new bed - we'll I've spent all that money (and then some) on rope gear.

From left to right, top to bottom:
Assorted slings (2) 12" (1) 24" (1) 48"
Cows tails with (2) wire gate and (2) scaffolding biners
48" rope protector
36" rope protector
(3) prussik loops of varying size
~ 15' 8mm accessory cord
30' 7/16" Static
50' 7/16" Static
100' 7/16" Static
Assorted flashlights and headlamp that just happened to be on the floor
100' throwline with lead weight
Rescue 8 Decender
Rappel Rack
(2) PAS
Rappel gloves
Harnesss
15' 1" tubular webbing
30' 1" tubular webbing
Tiblock
(2) micro pulleys
Assorted carabiners (2) autolock (4) wiregate (2) screwlock
ATC
Ascending rig (2) Ascentions, webbing, biners
The Bible (On Rope)

All this lives in my "master bedroom" while I continue to sleep on my old bed in my "guest bedroom."

Just got into repelling recently. I bought some basic gear this week and hope to expand my collection. If anyone in the Indianapolis area wants to meet up and rappel something (abandoned or not), let me know!

Posted by AdventureDog http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8430/7612252088_9aa7ffa9fa_c.jpg Gear by Detroit AdventureDog, on Flickr So the joke is, when I bought the house I was going to buy myself a new bed - we'll I've spent all that money (and then some) on rope gear. From left to right, top to bottom: Assorted slings (2) 12" (1) 24" (1) 48" Cows tails with (2) wire gate and (2) scaffolding biners 48" rope protector 36" rope protector (3) prussik loops of varying size ~ 15' 8mm accessory cord 30' 7/16" Static 50' 7/16" Static 100' 7/16" Static Assorted flashlights and headlamp that just happened to be on the floor 100' throwline with lead weight Rescue 8 Decender Rappel Rack (2) PAS Rappel gloves Harnesss 15' 1" tubular webbing 30' 1" tubular webbing Tiblock (2) micro pulleys Assorted carabiners (2) autolock (4) wiregate (2) screwlock ATC Ascending rig (2) Ascentions, webbing, biners The Bible (On Rope) All this lives in my "master bedroom" while I continue to sleep on my old bed in my "guest bedroom."

Wow, you really have gone all out! Awesome setup! And I'm glad to see you've got the number one most important piece of gear, that grey book in the bottom right corner.

New rope....Yea!

Red is 100' green is 200'

They won't be nice and new for long though. Pretty soon they will be red-brown and green-brown.



karstsports.com usually has static rope in their clearance/overstock section at reasonable prices. It's worth checking before you buy.

Abby Normal